The Book of Negroes By Lawrence Hill, A Reader's Response Literary Theory Analysis by John Velasco (1 of 3)

source: slate.com

My novel, The Book of Negroes, starts from the time period that the book concludes. I can tell that the book is being told from a later perspective. We jump from a scene where the main character seems to be living in a life filled with freedom and tranquility in London to a very rural village of Bayo in Africa, where villagers were thriving economically. As well, she points out that she has lost some loved once and has endured slavery. This will be crucial to the story, since its abolishment is talked about during the first chapter. But, who is our main character? Aminata Diallo is a very skilled and gifted woman. She is from a village in Bayo, near Segu on the river in Africa. Her parents taught her many things, including catching babies, speak and write in Arabic, do chores and more. Unfortunately, her parents were killed after she has been taken away to slavery. Eventually, we then learn that she is a fast learner, who learned doing things by watching other people do what they do. For ex, when Tom the Medicine man and Georgia teaches the newly named Meena, the English language. She does so by repeating the words that they say and point.  

source: gyfcat.com

She stated that white men had created a trauma for her at the first chapter, and I feel as if something worse could happen. We see Aminata, or Meena (Anglicized name) being transported to St. Helena Island, at Mr. Robinson Appleby’s indigo plantation. Even if Mr. Appleby is treating her fairly due to her many talents and abilities, her slavery journey doesn't end here. I predict that maybe she will be assaulted as a mature adult, due to the fact that men would objectify her from the way she looks. Through the book, the treatment of women and people of colour is very unequal.

source: CBC

Reading ⅓ of the novel, I could tell that the author wants to make a suspense for the events that happened so far, to keep its readers intrigued and hooked. When Aminata mentions crossing the “big river” (Atlantic Ocean), we see that her knowledge towards how the world is and how to know different terms from the “toubabs” is expanding, and the author is trying to let us go through her journey of intellectuality and proficiency. Seeing her know manual chores and seeing her view things in a different perspective, such as computing her age in rains than years, makes me want to learn more about how she will grow as a smarter woman that she is from the very beginning of the book. The puzzle of this novel is in regards to her journey of spirituality.

As we see in the story, her Islam beliefs are starting to fade away as she keeps praying to Allah. Her captives tell her not to pray, as they will upset a white man that they are around with. The fact that Aminata was taught so many things as a child and is being taken away from her parents and is sailed of to the seas, the message I grasped was that everything happens for a reason. There were times where she would hear her father’s voice, telling her to do what is necessary. From a religious perspective, this was destined to happen, as God intends us to be in these situations to sculpt us to be a better and more moral person. Even if her childhood seemed to be near perfect, that did not stop her from experiencing the darker sides of things. Life teaches this to us, that our world is not perfect. We are not similar to each other and there will be people in your life who would not take your credibility seriously.

In my opinion, the story starts with an understandable logic of the world the villagers lived in. The novel sparked my interest to learn more about African culture, traditions and customs. I’ve never been invested in doing so since watching Black Panther on theatres. Even if the book itself may contain some graphic scenes and very long descriptive paragraphs, it helped me appreciate black culture in a deeper sense historically.

source: Variety